Category: The Dish

McCain’s Message

By Patrick
Ross isn’t impressed with McCain’s general election ad:

Now of course it’s still early, and there’s a case to be made that a biography-centric roll-out for the campaign is good way to lay the groundwork for the fall contest. But the latest web ad from the McCain camp pushes all my Dole-redux buttons. It’s a paean to heroes in general, to McCain’s favorite high school teacher specifically, and more specifically still to the principle that you ought to turn in your friends when they break the honor code. Now maybe this is, as Jonah suggests, a canny below-the-radar pitch to the crucial crotchety-white-guy vote. But it makes it seem like John McCain is running to be the headmaster of the school in Dead Poets Society, and while anything that sticks it to Robin Williams’ annoying and irresponsible Emerson-wannabe of an English teacher is catnip to me, I’m not sure that running as the guy who’ll clean up the local prep school is the best way for a seventysomething politician with a reputation for being, well, a little crabby to make his case for the American Presidency.

Richelieu’s thoughts:

Maybe I’m missing something, but it looks and feels and sounds much more like a primary spot to me. I think McCain’s amazing story should be a key part of his general election message. But if that is the opening move — and I can make good arguments both for and against that strategy — should they do a spot that commits to that idea instead of just implying it as this ad does.

More importantly, what exactly is the McCain general election message strategy? Hard to find in this ad, unless the plan is to hang the whole general election campaign entirely on the war. If so, that would be Axelrod’s dream come true. My fear is that McCainland doesn’t have a general election message strategy.

Gravel’s Competition

By Patrick

David Weigel writes that Bob Barr is expected to announce his libertarian presidential bid on Saturday:

The Barr launch is getting to be an open secret among conference-goers. Advocacy Ink, the firm that handles Barr’s public relations, is advertising the speech to local and national reporters. Mike Ferguson, the de jure organizer of the conference, is scrambling to deal with a crush of new media requests.

"It doesn’t take much to put two and two together," said Ferguson. "You don’t do this unless you’re making the announcement."

Weigel also discredits the independent run rumor:

There is no truth to the rumor that Barr will ditch the party and run as an independent. "We’re on the ballot in 45 states," said one organizer at the conference. "Why would he throw away two years of work with the party to run an ego trip campaign with no ballot access? That story doesn’t make sense." Lisa Edelstein in Barr’s office also rejected the "independent" rumor. "If he does decide to run, he will run as a Libertarian candidate," she said.

The Divine Soil

By Patrick
In honor of naturalist John Burroughs’ birthday today, an except from his 1908 article:

It jars upon our sensibilities and disturbs our preconceived notions to be told that the spiritual has its root in the carnal and is as truly its product as the flower is the product of the roots and the stalk of the plant. The conception does not cheapen or degrade the spiritual, it elevates the carnal, the material. To regard the soul and body as one, or to ascribe to consciousness a physiological origin, is not detracting from its divinity, it is rather conferring divinity upon the body. One thing is inevitably linked with another, the higher forms with the lower forms, the butterfly with the grub, the flower with the root, the food we eat with the thought we think, the poem we write, or the picture we paint, with the processes of digestion and nutrition. How science has enlarged and ennobled and purified our conception of the universe; how it has cleaned out the evil spirits that have so long terrified mankind, and justified the verdict of the Creator: "and behold it was good." With its indestructibility of matter, its conservation of energy, its violability of cause and effect, its unity of force and elements throughout sidereal space, it has prepared the way for a conception of man, his origin, his development, and in a measure his destiny, that at last makes him at home in the universe.

Enforcing The Closet

By Patrick
The Pentagon tried to conceal Rodgers’ orientation and political participation:

A Wikipedia article about Maj. Alan Rogers, a gay soldier who was killed in January in Iraq, was apparently edited by someone in the Pentagon, who removed any mention that Rogers was gay.

The user on Monday redacted details about Rogers that appeared on the online encyclopedia site. Information that was deleted included Rogers’ sexual orientation; the soldier’s participation in American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to change military policy toward gays; and the fact that Rogers’ death helped bring the U.S. military’s casualty toll in Iraq to 4,000.

Rob Pilaud, a patent agent and a friend of Rogers who attended the soldier’s funeral, restored the information to the Wikipedia article the next day. Pilaud was among Rogers’ friends who created the Wikipedia page.

Other posts on Rodgers here, here, and here.

Letting Go

By Patrick
Jason Zengerle on the continued banter over Richardson’s endorsement:

You’d have thought that the Clinton people would have wanted to downplay the Richardson’s endorsement of Obama. And, if they hadn’t squawked so much, I bet it would have been a one- or two-day story. But here we are, nearly two weeks after Richardson did the deed, and the press is still talking about it–because the Clintons won’t shut up about it. I don’t see how this helps Hillary. Seriously, the Clinton people should just let it go.

The whole Clinton apparatus is based upon a series of loyalties. As Josh Green reported after the Clinton shake-up in February:

… above all, Clinton prizes loyalty and discipline, and Solis Doyle demonstrated both traits, if little else. This suggests to me that for all the emphasis Clinton has placed on executive leadership in this campaign, her own approach is a lot closer to the current president’s than her supporters might like to admit.

This is why they can’t get over Richardson’s endorsement.